1693/Planning Committee

Planning Committee
Date of Scene:	04 July 2016
Location:	Seiyou Public School - Royal Garden
Synopsis:	Tadase and Lindy meet up with Sailor Mercury to discus preparations for Virtue's new Archives.
Cast of Characters:	Tadase Hotori, Ami Mizuno

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Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase Hotori had gotten his dance - and survived, in a manner of speaking, with only a minimal case of exhausted feet from girls who wouldn't take no for an answer or for whom Tadase couldn't manage the polite turn-away.

And on the way home, thanking Ami for the dance anyways, and still all smiles - he'd asked if she could come by after on the following Sunday to meet with Lindy and talk more about plans.

And in the Royal Garden at it's spacious table once again sits Tadase with Kiseki, and Lindy to his right, having found a chair big enough for the tall once-Admiral. They're sitting eating scones, and in front of them is some sort of odd, highly technological sea-green gem sat in some sort of holder. Lindy herself is in full uniform - which she's kept immaculate - blue suit and tie, still proudly wearing her admiral's pins.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Blue is apparently the colour of the day, because Sailor Mercury appears in her full battle regalia: a blue skirt and collarred white fuku, with a lighter blue bow on her chest, and another one on her back so long it practically touches the ground.

Sailor Mercury makes her way in through the front door quietly, and faintly distracted, with her visor over her eyes displaying a metric ton of information while she walks towards the table with Lindy and Tadase.

When she does finally arrive, Ami pauses a moment to finish what she's reading, then banishes the goggles so she can smile at Tadase and Lindy. "Good afternoon," she greets.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Lindy rises from her chair as Tadase does, though the two of them do so for different reasons. For Tadase, it's to fetch the tea and cups, placing one in front of each spot and pouring green tea for all three of them. Tea is apparently the order of the day, and the only order. But then, out of the ordinary, he brings a service tray with a small ceramic jar and another container. Then he sits back down and smiles. "Good to see you again, Sailor Mercury. This is Admiral Lindy Harlown, formerly of the TSAB and Justice, now helping us run Virtue." he says, looking between them.

Lindy makes a bow, though only a slight formal one. Tadase smiles at her. "And this is Sailor Mercury, ally of Virtue and member of the Sailor Senshi, and she's now helped us save the world at least three times, by my count." he says, grinning and sitting back down.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury bows briefly to Lindy, equally formal and without even thinking about it. "Harlown-sama, it is a pleasure to meet you finally," she says respectfully, before motioning to the chairs. "Please, don't stand on my account," she encourages, then moves to take a seat herself.

She doesn't really address the claim that she's helped save the world three times. It's not a figure she wants to dwell on, and she'd much rather be humble about it. So instead she says, "I'm just a researcher with a lot of good friends. But I'm glad I have been able to help. Hotori-heika has generously put my skills to use in the past, and I hope he will continue to allow me to use them on Virtue's behalf often."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase leans back a bit, balancing his chair on two legs for a while as honorifics fly. "You might want to be careful for what you wish for, Mercury-sensei." he says. "I bet Virtue could find enough things for you to do you might not ever see the light outside of the Archives." he says, laughing a bit.

Lindy, meanwhile, has reached over and opened the top of the ceramic jar, and begun to use tiny tongs to pull out sugar cubes, which she drops into her green tea. "Unfortunantly a lot of my staff who I used to rely on to manage a lot of the knowledge systems are lost - either temporarily to subspace, or..." she drops another sugar cube in and coughs. "...more permanantly. In any case, I have a lot of theoretical information but no real way to make it functional for Virtue." she says.

"And while I'm sure some of it is of great value here, I have no way to even begin to seperate it out. And I've been told you may have access to more relevant, unique information. This is why Tsukasa, Tadase and I think you're the person to at least help initiate this project, and hopefully, manage it in the long run."

She waves a hand over the device and a three-dimensional projection appears. At the topmost area is the Royal Garden as it stands now. But a distance below it, there are three large floors that would seem to cover a very large amount of space.

"This is the plan for the Archives now. But it's basic. I'd like to know what you need, what sort of workspace you think would be ideal. Storage. Electronics. Anything we can get out hands on to make things either. The Taisha have agreed to fund it."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Three full floors beneath the garden is far more than Ami expected. Leaning forward, she studies the schematics briefly, then arches her brows significantly at it. "I think this is amazing," she says quietly, "and probably more than we need for just an archive. Luna will probably want to go over the plans with me, as well, but most of what we need is space and energy for mainframes, as well as redundancy."

She considers a moment, then reaches for her tea and stirs in a bit of honey quietly while she thinks. "It's the redundancy that's missing from this schematic, but I think it won't be very hard. Starting at the beginning, what we need are a series of mainframes--preferably Midchildaan in design, but I'll understand if you don't have the resources to make Storage Devices for this project." Yes, she knows about TSAB's typical non-intelligent devices. "I looked over a preliminary explanation of the data stored on your ship. Between your data and mine, I believe we have a sum of knowledge comprising at least three exabytes, right now, which is a lot of room. If we were to use modern mainframes, it would take up a full floor of what you have planned, here, plus a second floor for power, cooling, and wiring. Which I suppose is why you've made it so large."

Cue Mercury blushing as she realises Lindy has probably thought this through more than she realized. "Ahem. In addition, I would like to create a regular data link with the station on the moon as an off-site backup, as well as a second location in America or England. I hope we have allies we can call on out of Tokyo for this?" she looks between the two briefly, then continues, "Sorry, I'm probably talking too much."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Lindy smirks and looks to Tadase. It's not a bad smirk - just the knowing smile of someone who is sure they've got the right person for the job. "No, no. I want to know everything that's running through your mind. Even if it's something we're already planning on, hearing you talk about why you think it's important might jog me to think about something else!" she says.

Lindy is, notably, still dunking in sugarcubes. The tea is going to be more solid than liquid at this rate.

"I can probably spare a little bit of Sotrage Devices, but not many - we're strapped. It's hard to get new supplies from home, you understand, and it's hard to make the materials here. It requires techniques we simple don't have. The best chance to get more materials for something like this would be if more of the Asura falls. The advanced materials that make up the hull can also withstand the stresses of magical storage."

"But until then, we'll have to use what we have, and use Earth technology to fill in the gaps. Which is going to make upkeep interesting. I'm currently of the opinion it might be best to use as much Earth tech as possible, rather than as little - it's replacable in the long run, but if a vital peice of Mid-tech fails, we'll be down for a lot longer."

"Security is one of my paramount concerns, but unfortunantly, even the Taisha only really operate out of Tokyo. We're pretty limited in the resources we can call on for this outside of the city, while Eclipse isn't. So any storage away from here is inheriently more dangerous. Keeping it in your little Moon Kingdom is probably our best backup."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury nods at the encouragement, clearly pleased to know her ideas are actually wanted. SHe smiles and looks back at the plans, then reaches up to tuck a little bit of hair back behind her ear--the one with those three earings, in specific. "Well," she says as she activates her visor once more, and uses it to begin planning.

"If we're limited to Tokyo and the Moon, that's going to mean we aren't fully redundant in the case of an emergency. But for now it's still better than nothing. Formally, I'd like to request that we find resources out of Japan, as well as here. It's vital to have backups in more than one place. After all, you never know when an evil villain will point a noisy space cannon at the moon and blow it part-way to pieces," Ami explains, "and then we'd have no backup."

She reaches up as if to touch the hologram, then pulls her hands away again hesitantly. "The top floor should be the offices, lobby, and a meeting area, along with terminals. I'd like two beds in there, as well, in case someone needs a safe place to bunk for the night. The second floor should be the mainframes. Access to these should be restricted to authorized personnel only. I trust most of Virtue to have good intentions, but some of their good intentions could still destroy a lot of information accidentally. The third floor will need to be dedicated to battery backups and cooling, as I mentioned. Access to this floor should be limited to myself, one other person, and workers only as needed. If we lose t he third floor, the second floor is meaningless."

Then she looks to Lindy and suggests, "If we have limited access to Storage Devices, then I would like them specifically to control monitoring and Control. They won't directly hold any information, but tthey will keep track of ensuring the proper temperature and security protocols are maintained. They can also be responsible for the link to the Lunar network.

"While we're on the subject," Mercury says, "Do you know if there's any way to establish semi-permanent, if costly, subspace tunnels? Even if it requires an enormous expenditure of energy to open the doorway, it would be good to have a way to reach the moon in an emergency. Not from here, though; I would want it in the Senshi command center."

A pause, then Mercury adds, "I know Eclipse has mostly solved this through the use of something they call Folded Space. I don't yet know exactly how it works, but it allows t hem to traverse the city quickly, and to layer spaces on top of other spaces to achieve a greater volume in a limited area."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase is interested, though clearly a bit more lost in the conversational nuances than either of his partners in this venture. Lindy, on the other hand - if she's lost she certainly doesn't show it.

"I think... we could manage most of that. In short order, actually." she says, clearly listening closely to Mercury's suggestions. "I think we've got some of the access panels from the Asura we can re-purpose to work as consoles for security for the doors. Plus, it's here on the Seiyou school grounds - it's one of the safest places in the city, and one of the easiest places to get even more help to." she says.

Then, leaning forward. "I'll also admit to you part of the reason I can't offer more help with constructing Storage Devices is that we're going to use a lot of our current salvaged material to harden the Archives. It's lightweight but incredibly strong, and it should be able to withstand pretty much any non-energy weaponry this world has access to, and a lot of the energy weaponry Eclipse might have, so long as they don't shoot right at it."

"Frankly, I'm a lot more worried about them trying to get in or hack in." Tadase says. "They're not the types to destroy knowledge, but stealing it is really in thier ballpark." he says, leaning forward. "That's why the entrance is gonna be inside here, in the Garden. There's a lot of Virtue foot traffic and hopefully it'll make any sort of espionage harder."

Lindy shakes her head. "I am not exactly fond of subspace given that it tore through my ship like that. As far as I'm concerned, using it around Earth is dangerous enough. I had a specialist onboard, and I'd heard from some people she apparently survived - they claimed to have seen her around, but she never returned to us. Wherever she is, she doesn't seem to want to help us."

"Yeah, the way Eclipse moves around the city makes them really difficult to corner. They have a tactical advantage in being able to pop out pretty much wherever they want - even for those of them that don't make regular use of the Dusk Zone. Especially in Mitakihara. That whole district is like home turf for them - could be a lab behind any old door." This obviously has been bothering Tadase for some time.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury frowns and taps her lips thoughtfully. "Subspace is only dangerous if you put too much power into it," she notes quietly to Lindy, "which is why thus far I've limited my jumps to short distances. Longer ones ..." she trails off, then glances over her shoulder. "Mmm. Well, we still need a way to get to the moon semi-regularly. Teleportation of some means. Even if it's a spell that I have to use my Belkan device for," she points out.

Yeah, she has one of those.

"Anyways," Mercury refocuses the discussion once more on the project at hand, "You're right that the security risk is hacking and physical infiltration. Having it here on these grounds only means it will be visibly obvious that activity is increasing. Make no mistake, once Eclipse knows it's here, they will try to get access." She sighs and leans back in her chair, then takes a sip of the tea as she stares over the schematics on her visor. After a moment, she banishes the visor again, then looks to Lindy. "Do you have a programmer on staff? I'm good but I'm only one girl and I haven't got a lot of experience. We can devise some custom security programs for security while the physical structure is being built, and then ... I don't know what to do about physical security."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Lindy smiles and finally drinks her tea. It's more sugar than tea right now, more fit for a hummingbird than a person. It doesn't seem to bother her, but Tadase and Kiseki both make a face. "Ah, now a programmer - that I have two of. Sometime this weel - I'll call you - when I can pull them away from another project, I'll have them come sit down and meet with you, too."

Tadase frowns a bit. "Yeah, I'd like to keep it a secret but I don't think that's going to be possible. Too many of the people in Virtue have a connection to someone in Eclipse, and they also keep their ears to the ground. And with the size of this project that may mean they can literally hear us excavating." If any part of this is directed at Mercury, Tadase doesn't show it at all.

"I'll admit, one of the reasons why this is the Archives and not something else, like a testing range or lab, is that I don't want Eclipse to get the idea that we're escalating. In a way, we are, but I don't want to start an arms race between us. If they get ancy and actually come after us directly instead of just opposing us as they act... it could get messy. I'm not a fan of messy, if I can avoid it." Tadase says.

"I'll see if anyone else on my staff knows anything that we can use to help you with that access to the moon." Lindy says, putting her own concerns to the side. "Maybe the Taisha know something, if I can convince them to stop worshipping Shinju-sama long enough to actually provide me with help of another kind than financial."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury doesn't seem to even notice how much sugar Lindy has put in her tea. She finishes her own, then nods her head to Lindy and puts her empty cup back down on the saucer. "Once we're up and running, I'd like to add minor access to Virtue Comms to allow data input and retrieval by remote. Not full archive retrieval, but certain important top-level data should be available."

The Senshi frowns in thought for a moment, then admits, "This project is going to take almost a year to get up fully, but I think we can open the lobby only a few weeks after the physical lobby is ready."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase nods. "I think one the of the most important parts of this project, privately - is that it'll show the people who unite and call themselves Virtue there's more to it than just an emergency phone. It'll be a symbol that we're dedicated to this fight. It'll be a place they can bring information to, and collaborate, and in a way, it makes us more of a team." he says, leaning forward again. "Sharing information like this is kind of a trust exercise, all the way around. So I'm glad you could be the first person we invited onboard to trust us, and to take our trust in you back and run with it."

Lindy smiles at Tadase, and turns. "We can do that. Minor, anyways. I still want people to come by here for access to the full archives though. It allows us to control information and it means we should be able to see them ask for things, and in doing so, be aware, and look for other ways we can help, instead of just data alone."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury considers Lindy's answer a moment, then grins. "Just things that are of current operational need," she agrees. "Nothing long-term or in depth." She looks between the two, then smiles broadly. "I admit, I'm excited. Fiore and the Xenians proved that we aren't coordinated. Not even the Senshi alone, and we're a very strong team. I can't wait to unveil this project to the rest of Virtue."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase smiles. "I think it'll help us all. In a lot of ways, including ways that aren't obvious. I think just having a place where different groups will naturally run into each other will be good."

Lindy nods. "You can start murmuring about the idea - but please, only to those you trust. Like Tadase said, we're not expecting this to keep secret forever, but we would ask that we try to keep Eclipse from finding out at least while we're still getting the place built." she says with a small smile.

"And if there's anything you need, let us know." Tadase says with a wink that may or may not include sparkles. (It totally does.) "We want to see this project succeed."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Just a regular way to the moon, right now," Ami says quietly, "and the programmers." SHe nods to both. "If I think of anything else I'll bring it up right away. Don't worry, I'm not afraid to ask for help when I need it." Rolling forward, Mercury slowly rises again, then bows low to both of them. "Thank you so much for trusting me with this opportunity. I will do my best not to let you down."